Deepertruth: Stand In The Gap With Us And Saint Joachima

Stand In The Gap With Us And Saint Joachima 6/10/2024: Joaquima Vedruna Vidal de Mas was born on 16 April 1783 in Barcelona to the nobles Lorenzo de Vedruna - who worked for the government.

Born into an aristocratic family in Barcelona, Spain, Joachima was 12 when she expressed a desire to become a Carmelite nun. But her life took an altogether different turn at 16 with her marriage to a young lawyer, Theodore de Mas. Both deeply devout, they became secular Franciscans. During their 17 years of married life they raised eight children.

Her childhood was a pious one and she fostered a special devotion to the Infant Jesus while being known for her obsessive cleanliness and she made her First Communion in 1792

When Napoleon invaded Spain, Theodore served in the Spanish army, after he had moved his family to Vich. When the French troops arrived there, Joachima had to flee with her children; but after the war she returned to that city, the birthplace of her husband.

Joachima and Theodore were both members of the Third Order fraternity at the Capuchin church in Vich. She was only thirty-three when Theodore died in 1816 at the age of forty-two.

Though her old desire to enter a religious community was still strong in her, Saint Joachima de Vedruna had duties to perform towards her children; and so, for the first seven years of her widowhood she took care of her children.